Malaysian timber firm fined for illegal rainforest logging in Guyana

Barama Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Samling Group, a Malaysian logging firm, has been fined for violating Guyana’s forest laws, reports Staebroek News. Barama operates the largest timber concession in Guyana.

According to Staebroek News, several logging companies are being collectively fined 275 million Guyana Dollars (1.35 million US Dollars).

Samling subsidiaries have previously been fined for non-compliance with Guyana’s forestry laws, including a $474,000 penalty in October 2007. Bruno Manser Fonds, a Switzerland-based environmental, says the continued breaches “raise the question if Samling has purposely misled investors on the risks related to purchasing the company’s shares.”

Shares of Samling Global fell 7.5 percent to 1.23 in trading Monday on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Shares are down 41 percent since Samling’s IPO in March 2007, and 65 percent off the all-time high reached in July 2007.

Earlier this month Guyana awarded nearly 1 million acres of rainforest to Simon & Shock International, a timber company based in South Haven, Michigan.

In November, Guyana’s president Bharrat Jagdeo said he would ban logging and development of the South American country’s forests in exchange for carbon credits.